1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a small mass spectrometer.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Well-known mass spectrometers ionize a small volume of samples and electomagnetically separate the ions, thereby reliably measuring molecular weights. The mass spectrometry includes a liquid chromatography mass spectrometry and a chromatography mass spectrometry. The liquid chromatography mass spectrometry includes mass spectrometry after separating components of a target material to be analyzed in liquid chromatograph, while the chromatograph mass spectrometry includes qualitative analysis of the same component separated in gas chromatograph by performing the mass spectrometry measuring, so as to determine the quantitation of the components based on the intensity of the ion detected by the mass spectrometry.
In recent years, introduction of mass spectrometers has been demanded for the sake of safety, in some kinds of environments, such as the industry, the non-official entities, and military environment. This is because it is necessary to quickly determine the level or kind of contamination due to unknown chemical goods as quickly as possible.
Particularly, in some well-known cases, the introduction of the mass spectrometer has been demanded as a countermeasure for terrorism using chemical weapons (for example, poisonous gas) or for maintaining strict control of drugs. However, the conventional mass spectrometers are too large to be carried.
Some conventional techniques have been proposed. One technique (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-294619(hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1)) proposes a portable compound analyzing system having a portable case containing at least an optical spectrometer and a mass spectrometer. Another technique (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-527563 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 2)) proposes a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer whose entire weight including the entire vacuum system is light to be carried (approximately 25 kg).